Campus offices switch to online myGate system

Bubbling in time cards is ancient history for Murray State employees.

The payroll module of Murray State's new online system, myGate, was activated for student use in mid-December.

This program allows employees to fill out time sheets online.

Jackie Dudley, director of Accounting and Finance, said the launch of the new system went very well.

"Users overall have done an excellent job using the system," she said. "It's a fairly intuitive process, but training on myGate was available before the break to anyone who wanted it."

Dudley said few discrepancies were reported since the payroll module of myGate was implemented.

"From a user's standpoint, we have had minimal issues," she said. "The campus has been very cooperative with us, and they call to let us know if they have a problem. We haven't had very many people say they didn't like it."

Students are optimistic about using myGate to log work hours as opposed to filling out paper timecards.

Charlie Rogers, freshman from Murray, said the online system is easy to use and is more convenient than filling out papers.

"It beats having to walk into the office and jot down hours on paper," he said. "Even if you're not in the office, you can log in your hours from a home computer. Also if you forgot to fill in a day of work you can easily log back in and fix it."

Buster Whitfill, junior from Hardinsburg, Ky., also has thoughts on myGate.

"Starting it up was a little annoying," he said. "But it seems like it'll be easier than filling out timecards on paper."

Although Whitfill said myGate is an "interesting, useful program," he and Rogers both have some concerns about the University's Internet server crashing.

Dudley said concerns about the server are absolutely legitimate, but she is confident her staff conducted sufficient tests before the system was launched.

"We began training with myGate in July 2007," Dudley said. "We tested for weeks to see how much the system could handle - everything from how many users could log on at a time to dollar volume.

"Campus hardware was also beefed up and adequate equipment was put in place to accommodate for potentially high server traffic."

Dudley said her staff is starting to test the class registration module of myGate in preparation for fall scheduling later this semester.

"We will be prepared for when scheduling starts," she said.

Anyone with questions about myGate or problems logging in or filing out tim ecards should contact the Murray State Help Desk at 809-2346.

Hailey Kercheval

can be reached at hailey.

kercheval@murraystate.edu.